Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

2.11.2008

Mount Pleasant Main Street in the AM

Mount Pleasant Main Street in the AM

I like this simple shoteven if it is simple

this addition comes as a late addition to this posta late unrelated addition to this postsometimes I drift back and rant on previous postssometimes I drift back and make this additions to try and hide things in my posts

when I got out of work the ground was getting slick from the dropping temperatures and the mix of rain and freezing rainso... I bypassed the notion of a post work ride... there was no time... there was little ambition

okay... there was some time but there was zero ambitionI gave into the one of my many demons... apathyit was easy to rationalize that the risks of riding outweighting the gainsthe thought of getting sick fell low on the list behind the other filmsy rationalizationssome of those rationalizations involved crashing or getting his by an aware car

without the rider there was still my short straight bicycle commute home

the ground was iced over in some spotsdarn right slick in some spots... ice rink slicksure in other spots the ground was nothing more than wetthat altering unpredictablity of things added to the dangerconfidence could be false... no cornering on ice without studded tires

some cars driving around with nothing more than a foot by foot square cleared on their ice covered windshieldwhile other cars were void of ice as they came from parking garages where they were not getting touched by the elements through the course of the daythe streets were not filled up with cars with fogged up windows... cars driven by people too ignorant to know how to operated something as simple as a car defroster... no, the car windows were not fogged up... but the cars were being overated by this same ignorant set of drivers

I traveled straight homestraight home where I would have enough time for a slightly longer than normal hike with the dog before freeing the babysitter and playing mr. mom with the kids as mom attends a pta style meeting

I traveled down the roadas I went down the road I was aggitated by the ignorace of the assholes around meI was being passed fast and close by cars that I would pass seconds laterI was being tailgated by cars when there was traffic backed up just aheadthis usually pisses me off... but on a day like today it would make sense for cars to bring down their speed and increase the following distance and the passing distanceso it really pissed me off

I was aggitated more easily as it bothers me that people are unable to adapt to the situationthe car causes a de-evolution

I was in my lane... the right lane... just out of the door zone of the parked carsto the left things were blockedthe lane of oncoming traffic was blocked by a Fed Ex truck... or now as I think back it was a Giant Peapod deilvery trucklike a dumb redneck going onto an occupied one lane brideit was a stalemate

the driver stared at me blanklylike I was a squirrel in the street that should know better or it will not live another dayI just stood thereI motioned for the car to back upthe driver did nothingso I went alongside the car and he rolled down the windowhis face was void of expressionhe did not speakit was clear from his skin tone and his facial features he was of latino originsI did not know if he spoke english or spanish as he just looked at me with this blank expressionI said a few words then he pulled away

my guess.... bi-lingually ignorant and a bi-lingual assholestupid in any languagewhy did he roll down his window if he was not willing to discuss the matteras he pulled away he flipped me offwhich makes him a bi-lingual pussy as wella bi-lingual pussy who almost hit the peapod guy crossing the street

he flipped me off... shouted back... GO BACK TO FLORIDAas he had florida platesthen the fantasies went through my headfantasies that I would never act onbut recurring fantasies just the samemy mind driffed back to reality as I rolled the final blocks towards home

IQ tests instead of driving test...because the drivers have shown that they can not drive yet they passed this testso the driving test is not a good enough filter to make the roads safeIQ tests would work better

less people would be licensed to drive

yes... I am angrywas my life at risk with his driving choice... well... we would have had a head on collision had I not stopped my bikewas it my duty to dodge him rather than ride where it is legal for me to bethis man could have waited to his right until the line of travel was clearbut instead he just drove into the left hand lane towards the gap that was occupied by a cyclistthat cyclist being methat guy being a standard asshole of the road

what was his rational?did he not see me?had he not looked?does he not look and anticipate four car lengths ahead?

or

was it that he felt that a car has more right than a bicycle? that I have less right to space and safety because I am not in a car?that he is superior or at least more important because he owns a car?

fricken asshole.... fricken under-evolved asshole that has no clue and will never have any clue

how do we give the clueless a clue?public service announcements?did that crying indian stop pollution?

5 comments:

long a's comment appeared before I posted the long wordy addition to this post

mount pleasant is wonderfulcar drivers are less than wonderful everywhere

everywhere I have been

I guess inconsiderate behavior is nothing newbut with less travel there was less cross interactionbut with the carwe have cross interaction all day everydaythus exposing us to the selfishness of othersor maybe the plain ingnorance of others

I started biking home but bailed out and waited for a ride home from McDs. there were spots I couldn't even walk on the paths I normally take. other spots were fine, but not knowing what the surface is doing is almost as bad as all ice. Better not to risk it on an ice storm day...

Took a spill three different times on my ride home, the last one being the most painful, a fall right on my tail bone (coccyx)...damn, that hurt!

Hooked up with 3 other riders out tempting the same fate. The trail was unpredictable, icy in places you wouldn't imagine. The road wasn't as slick, but a fall meant a good chance of getting mauled by a car that also likely couldn't stop.

When I got home, I had to wait for my blinky and headlight to thaw before I could turn 'em off, ha.

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